Bruins 4, Red Wings 1: B's come back with a bang

The Bruins are at their best when they play a heavy style, drive hard to the net, win battles in the corners and posses the puck like a dog grabs a toy. In Game 1, they were chasing the puck and didn't impose their will.

BOSTON — Kevan Miller didn't play Friday night in the Bruins' playoff opener. He was not doing well after a virus ravaged the roster last week.

The rookie defenseman was cleared to return Sunday. On his first shift of Game 2 against the Red Wings, Miller walloped Red Wings winger Drew Miller in the corner. He began his playoff debut with a bang, literally.

That fit in nicely with the Bruins' game plan to even their first-round series against Detroit.

"We're a team that doesn't mind the physical game, and it only works if you get there," coach Claude Julien said after the Bruins' 4-1 win at TD Garden. "Last game, we're weren't. Today, we were.

"We were able to use the physical aspect of our game a little bit more, and because of that, we were able to get pucks and turn pucks over a little bit more as well."

With the series tied at 1-1, it now shifts to Detroit for the next two games at Joe Louis Arena, with Game 3 Tuesday. The Bruins have written the blueprint for how they want to attack the Red Wings, who have yet to get their speed-based game going.

The Bruins are at their best when they play a heavy style, drive hard to the net, win battles in the corners and posses the puck like a dog grabs a toy. In Game 1, they were chasing the puck and didn't impose their will.

"I think it was really important to come out and get the crowd engaged," said Torey Krug. "You see guys, Millsy his first couple shifts, he's blowing guys up. [David Krejci] is on the body, that's when he's at his best in the playoffs. It spreads through our team like fire and that's important."

Although they had no shots on goal in the first seven minutes Sunday, the Bruins were a volcano shaking before the eruption. The puck rarely left the sight of Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard. Checks were finished, drives to the net were made.

Then, the lava began flowing.

It started with a lucky break, Howard coming out of his net and flubbing a pass to defenseman Brendan Smith. Justin Florek grabbed the puck and scored his first career playoff goal.

The officials rewarded the Bruins with whistles. Carl Soderberg drove hard to the net and Detroit defenseman Jakub Kindl was called for interference. Then on the power play, Wings blue liner Danny DeKeyser slashed Soderberg. With Loui Eriksson doing grunt work in the crease, Reilly Smith scored 20 seconds after the five-on-three expired.

"I think power plays definitely helped us in the start and changed the tide," Smith said. "You know we're not getting too many pucks to the net at the start, and then you get the five-on-three and you're able to fire as many as you want. So that does definitely change the pace of the game and we benefitted off of it."

Page 2 of 2 - By the end of the first period, the Bruins had a 2-0 lead and out-attempted the Wings 27-17. Their 18 shots on goal was their number through two periods in Game 1 and just six fewer than the 24 total in their 1-0 series opener loss.

The Red Wings fought back. They wanted to match the Bruins' physicality, highlighted by Brendan Smith risking suicide-by-hockey-fight when he challenged Zdeno Chara at the end of the first period.

Detroit outshot the Bruins 13-6 in the second and went on three straight power plays that the Bruins killed. The Wings had just one shot on goal in 7:49 of power-play time.

"In the second period it felt like we were killing most of the time," Milan Lucic said. "The PK stepped up and was able to shut them down."

Detroit got one back when a Darren Helm rebound knocked off Luke Glendening's glove and into the net at 13:20 of the second. The Red Wings had all the momentum and seemed on the verge of pulling even. But a crucial kill of a Dougie Hamilton tripping penalty was followed by Lucic scoring in transition with 1:44 left in the period.

Lucic cut his foot earlier in the shift with his skate and considered coming off. Instead, he stayed on and finished a pretty give-and-go with Jarome Iginla, who had two assists. The Lucic-Krejci-Iginla line hadn't gotten going until then.

"That was big-time right there," said Krug, who made the outlet pass to Lucic. "Crucial part of the game. You put the puck in those guys' hands, they're going to make things happen sooner or later. They're going to break down those defensive walls. What a play by Iggy to get it over to Looch."

Chara scored a second power-play goal early in the third and the Bruins can head to Detroit with a tied series, having remembered where their bread is buttered.

"When we play that style of hockey," Johnny Boychuk said, "everybody is going and everybody feeds off of each other."

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.